5.  The applicants were born in 1958, 1950 and 1949 respectively and live in Chişinău.
6.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
7.  All the applicants worked for the Ministry of Transport and Communications (“the employer”). They were promoted in 1997 but their salaries were not increased accordingly in the years 1997-98. When the employer refused to increase their salaries, the applicants initiated court proceedings.
8.  On 4 December 2000 the Centru District Court awarded 5,074 Moldovan lei (MDL) (the equivalent of 469 euros (EUR) at the time) to the first applicant and MDL 5,280 (the equivalent of EUR 488 at the time) to the second applicant. On 26 December 2000 the same court awarded MDL 5,388 (the equivalent of EUR 498 at the time) to the third applicant. No appeals were lodged and the judgments became final and enforceable 15 days later.
9.  The applicants complained to a number of State authorities, asking for assistance in having the judgments in their favour enforced. They received a number of replies, including that of the Ministry of Justice of 24 May 2001, which readdressed the complaint to the Centru District Court, requesting it to take “all measures provided by the law”. On 31 May 2001 the vice-president of that court informed the first applicant that the enforcement warrant had been sent to the State Treasury and that enforcement was impossible owing to the lack of money in the employer's account. A number of other authorities, including the Centru District Court, the Ministry of Justice, the President's Office and the Human Rights Centre were asked by the applicants to assist in ensuring the enforcement of the judgment. These complaints were either forwarded to the employer or to the court, with instructions to ensure the enforcement of the judgment. The applicants were informed of the lack of money in the employer's debt settlement account, which had been frozen for enforcement purposes, and that the budget had not been modified to provide for the enforcement of the judgment. The applicants were also informed that 70 similar judgments against the employer were awaiting enforcement.
10.  The applicants submitted to the Court a copy of a Government decision of 17 January 2002, which ordered the Ministry of Finance to allocate to the employer MDL 483,700 from the Government reserve fund, to cover reorganisation expenses. That money was to be returned to the reserve fund from the employer's 2002 budget. In another Government decision, dated 5 June 2002, the employer was allowed to buy an apartment in Chişinău for its Minister, funded by the development fund.
11.  The domestic court fined the employer several times during 2002 for failing to enforce its judgments.
12.  In September 2002 the enforcement warrants were partly enforced. The first applicant received MDL 3,940, the second applicant received MDL 4,145 and the third applicant received MDL 4,172. The remainder (equivalent to EUR 67, EUR 82 and EUR 91 respectively) was withheld as income tax.
13.  The applicants brought a new action for compensation for the pecuniary damage caused by inflation and for non-pecuniary damage, which they left to the court's discretion.
14.  By its final judgments of 4 February 2004 the Supreme Court of Justice found that the judgments in the applicants' favour had been belatedly enforced, and awarded MDL 5,074 (the equivalent of EUR 334 at the time) to the first applicant and MDL 6,715 (the equivalent of EUR 402 at the time) to the third applicant in compensation for the effect of inflation on the value of the 2000 award. The court did not deal with the applicants' request for compensation for non-pecuniary damage. On 7 May 2004 the second applicant's request for compensation was accepted by the Buiucani District Court, which awarded him MDL 6,579 (the equivalent of EUR 474 at the time).
15.   The award of 4 February 2004 was enforced on 4 May 2004. In February 2005 the first and third applicants received MDL 1,755 (EUR 107) each from the employer in compensation for the delay in enforcing this new award.